Cantoni.org Brian Cantoni writes about cool web software, interesting mobile websites, and sports when possible. tag:www.cantoni.org,2008-02-24://1 2009-12-22T22:09:48Z Movable Type 4.1 RSS to CSV Converter tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.672 2009-12-22T21:44:30Z 2009-12-22T22:09:48Z Recently @tonyadam was asking about for a way to import Twitter search results into Excel via RSS or CSV. I couldn’t find a suitable method on my slightly out of date Excel 2003, but sent Tony a link explaining how Excel 2007 could get him closer to what he wants. Turns out he was on the Mac anyways, so we... Brian Cantoni Recently @tonyadam was asking about for a way to import Twitter search results into Excel via RSS or CSV. I couldn’t find a suitable method on my slightly out of date Excel 2003, but sent Tony a link explaining how Excel 2007 could get him closer to what he wants. Turns out he was on the Mac anyways, so we needed an alternative way.

Importing into Excel usual involves using the CSV format. So all we needed was an RSS to CSV format converter, but surprisingly couldn’t find anything relevant on the web. In general there isn’t much interest in XML to CSV conversion because it would only make sense for the simplest of XML files — basically, one table with rows & columns. Anything more complicated won’t fit within the confines of CSV.

To solve this problem, I created an RSS to CSV converter script, using a bit of YQL for the feed fetching and parsing.

We can test it using Tony’s original request — Twitter search results — as follows:

  1. Login to twitter
  2. Search for something (my sample: nascar)
  3. On the right-hand side, copy the “RSS feed for this query link”
  4. Go to RSS to CSV converter
  5. Paste in Twitter RSS link, changing “.atom” to “.rss” (my sample: http://search.twitter.com/search.rss?q=nascar)
  6. Click Submit
  7. Save CSV file when prompted, or import into Excel

One problem I discovered (again) is that Excel is not happy with Unicode characters in CSV format. There are some alternatives described, so I may enhance this script to properly handle UTF-8 if someone has a use-case for it.

]]> Private Browsing as a Developer Tool tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.671 2009-12-16T03:48:58Z 2009-12-16T04:06:44Z Having spent the better part of today debugging a problem with cookies on a couple different servers, I stumbled on the fact that the “Private Browsing” feature of Firefox was exceptionally handy for my situation. Private browsing is usually touted as a feature for “porn browsing”, or other activities in which you’re trying to not leave a trail. The same... Brian Cantoni Having spent the better part of today debugging a problem with cookies on a couple different servers, I stumbled on the fact that the “Private Browsing” feature of Firefox was exceptionally handy for my situation. Private browsing is usually touted as a feature for “porn browsing”, or other activities in which you’re trying to not leave a trail. The same cleanroom features make it ideal for testing and developing web applications.

In a typical case where you’d need to clear browser history, clear cookies, and so on, I would usually keep one browser set up with developer tools (bugs, twiki, etc.), and launch another browser to be the guinea pig. With private browsing, I can now use my preferred browser (Firefox) for both cases.

]]> Local Flash Files Reveal Browsing History tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.670 2009-09-03T17:11:35Z 2009-09-03T18:12:42Z While doing some housekeeping cleanup on my Windows laptop, I noticed an interesting set of files under the Adobe/Macromedia Flash section in "Application Data". Inside a directory called `#SharedObjects` was a set of sub-directories named after domains I had visited. Each directory contained one or more `.sol` files which I discovered are Local Shared Objects, basically local data storage for Flash components. Brian Cantoni While doing some housekeeping cleanup on my Windows laptop, I noticed an interesting set of files under the Adobe/Macromedia Flash section in “Application Data”. Inside a directory called #SharedObjects was a set of sub-directories named after domains I had visited. Each directory contained one or more .sol files which I discovered are Local Shared Objects, basically local data storage for Flash components.

I’m not so worried about the privacy aspects of the sites using this local storage; it’s very similar to the issues with normal browser cookies. The surprising thing was the existence of this file set, essentially revealing all of the sites you had ever visited. In my case I had 217 unique domains from November 2007 through today.

For more info, see the recent article on Wired: You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again, or the Adobe article What are local shared objects?. In the meantime, if you care about keeping your browsing history safe, remember to clear out these files regularly.

Screenshot of flash shared objects sub-directories

]]> Cash for Clunkers Market Distribution tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.669 2009-08-27T15:47:59Z 2009-08-27T15:53:40Z Here's a quick comparison of the market share for US auto sales compared with participation in the Car Allowance Rebate System (aka "Cash for Clunkers"). The distribution of rebates among top manufacturers tracks pretty closely to their recent market share. But, if you look closely, you'll see that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are all slightly below expectations, while all the imports (except VW) are above. Conclusion: import manufacturers got a larger share of the incentive program than their general market share would anticipate. Brian Cantoni Here’s a quick comparison of the market share for US auto sales compared with participation in the Car Allowance Rebate System (aka “Cash for Clunkers”).

The distribution of rebates among top manufacturers tracks pretty closely to their recent market share. But, if you look closely, you’ll see that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are all slightly below expectations, while all the imports (except VW) are above.

Conclusion: import manufacturers got a larger share of the incentive program than their general market share would anticipate.

Chart comparing market share numbers with CARS data

Data sources:

]]> Palm Desktop to Outlook: Better Contacts Migration tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.668 2009-08-22T07:14:46Z 2009-10-21T22:48:25Z Having switched phones recently from an aging Treo 650 to a BlackBerry 8830, I once again put myself in the mess of transferring my calendar and contacts from one device to the other. Brian Cantoni Having switched phones recently from an aging Treo 650 to a BlackBerry 8830, I once again put myself in the mess of transferring my calendar and contacts from one device to the other. In the past I’ve switched between Palm Desktop and Outlook by careful use of the Palm’s HotSync conduits. With the switch to a BlackBerry, those old tricks weren’t available. Luckily I was already syncing my Calendar with Outlook, so that left the migration of Contacts for me to solve.

I tried the old trusty CSV file export/import path, but even after painstakingly assigning field names to columns, the results were still jumbled (home phone number labeled as Work, and so on). The Palm Desktop CSV import/export process still has a few bugs in it, including not being able to reliably label the exported fields.

Enter vCard. Palm Desktop does have vCard support (for single or multiple contacts), and does fill in the fields more accurately. And Outlook accepts them as an import format. The only hitch was that Outlook can only handle vCard files with a single contact. Rather than repeat that process for several hundred contacts, I tried (then bought) vCard ImportExport by Topalt.com. This simple Outlook add-in lets Outlook handle vCards with multiple contacts.

With my new vCard software in hand, here’s the process that ultimately worked best for transferring my contacts from Palm Desktop to Outlook:

  1. In Palm Desktop, export each category of contacts to its own vCard (.vcf) file (e.g., Personal category -> personal.vcf)
  2. In Outlook, use vCard ImportExport to import the first category vCard file
  3. Select all contacts just imported and assign to that category (normally they come in with no category assigned)
  4. Repeat steps 2-3 for remaining categories

The only problem I encountered was that the Notes field from the Palm Desktop side ended up in Notes and in Web Page fields in Outlook. Not sure if this is a bug with the importer, or Outlook itself. I wrote a quick Outlook macro to clean those up.

]]> Yahoo! 360° Closing Today tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.667 2009-07-13T20:09:26Z 2009-07-13T20:45:35Z Today is the last day the Yahoo! 360° service will be online; last chance to download or migrate old blog content over to the new Yahoo! Profiles service. Brian Cantoni The Yahoo! 360° blogging/profile/social networking product launched in April 2005. After about 2 years, talk of closing down the service began, but was delayed until there was a similar product to which existing users could switch. Now, 2 years after that announcement, the closure is finally here. Today is the last day 360° will be online and available for users to download or migrate their old blog content over to the new Yahoo! Profiles.

I did not work on Yahoo! 360­°, nor was I a serious user of it. I’m sure a lot of existing users are frustrated either because Profiles doesn’t do what they want, or the simple fact that it’s just different. I will say that if a product like this is no longer a high priority internally and does not have a clear future, it’s really best to close it down (in an orderly fashion) and redirect those internal resources elsewhere. Even without any new feature development, the ops impact alone for keeping a service like this online is pretty significant.

Yahoo! 360 Closure Notice Screenshot

For those that are looking for help with 360° migration or other issues, please see the online help.

]]> 5 Years at Yahoo! tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.666 2009-05-06T23:48:29Z 2009-05-06T23:52:33Z Brian Cantoni 5

]]> Cantoni.mobi Redesign tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.665 2009-02-25T08:44:48Z 2009-02-25T16:25:50Z My Cantoni.mobi mobile website resource site has been cruising along with a growing user base and a steady stream of suggested new sites. I wanted to stick with the original one-page design as long as possible, but finally I realized the page size was just too large. With over 300 links, the page weighed in at almost 22KB. Worse, I... Brian Cantoni My Cantoni.mobi mobile website resource site has been cruising along with a growing user base and a steady stream of suggested new sites. I wanted to stick with the original one-page design as long as possible, but finally I realized the page size was just too large. With over 300 links, the page weighed in at almost 22KB. Worse, I found it increasingly difficult to navigate within the page because the links list was just too long.

Tonight I’m releasing a big update to the site: we now have a “home” or index page at Cantoni.mobi. The home page has a list of categories, each of which are now on their own page. The structure is to simply add the category name in the URL, so News junkies for example could bookmark: http://cantoni.mobi/news/.

With the split, the home page is once again really lightweight (under 3KB) while the category pages are all under 8KB each.

Cantoni.mobi redesign screenshot

]]> Ask.com: Official Search Engine of NASCAR tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.664 2009-02-17T01:50:17Z 2009-02-17T02:15:23Z Watching the Great American Race yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice that Ask.com has tuned into NASCAR in a big way. Sure enough, it turns out that Ask.com has signed a big deal with NASCAR: Ask.com, a leading search engine and an operating business of IAC, announced Wednesday it has entered into partnerships with NASCAR, NASCAR.COM and Hall of Fame... Brian Cantoni Watching the Great American Race yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice that Ask.com has tuned into NASCAR in a big way. Sure enough, it turns out that Ask.com has signed a big deal with NASCAR:

Ask.com, a leading search engine and an operating business of IAC, announced Wednesday it has entered into partnerships with NASCAR, NASCAR.COM and Hall of Fame Racing. Under the terms of the partnership with NASCAR, Ask becomes the Official Search Engine of NASCAR, with category exclusivity and a broad set of promotional rights in order to reach the sport’s estimated 75 million loyal fans.

In addition to the on-screen advertising, Ask.com is sponsoring Bobby Labonte in the 96 car (for 18 of the first 21 races), has created a NASCAR toolbar, and has created a new NASCAR homepage. I think the idea of an “official search engine” is pretty solid, even if it sounds a bit hokey. This move won’t put Google out of business, but Ask should pick up some incremental search traffic from NASCAR fans during the year.

For an idea of how valuable this kind of exposure can be, see my previous article on NASCAR sponsorship exposure value.

I wish Yahoo! had taken this opportunity a couple years ago when we were involved in NASCAR (Yahoo! sponsored Tina Gordon in her Busch series car). Unfortunately, I don’t think the value was there for Yahoo!, especially considering that Gordon didn’t qualify for many races and didn’t spend much time running up front.

Here’s a screenshot of Ask.com taken in the middle of the Daytona 500 yesterday:

Ask.com screenshot during the 2009 Daytona 500 race

]]> 20 Years of Super Bowl Ads tag:www.cantoni.org,2009://1.663 2009-01-29T07:18:56Z 2009-01-29T07:27:49Z Getting geared up for the Super Bowl this weekend, which also means the usual anticipation, discussion, and review of all the TV advertising contained within. (About 33 minutes’ worth according to the NY Times.) On the NY Times site today I discovered this cool multi-media exploration: The Super Ad Bowl:Two Decades of Players. They have a breakdown of all ads... Brian Cantoni Getting geared up for the Super Bowl this weekend, which also means the usual anticipation, discussion, and review of all the TV advertising contained within. (About 33 minutes’ worth according to the NY Times.)

On the NY Times site today I discovered this cool multi-media exploration: The Super Ad Bowl:Two Decades of Players. They have a breakdown of all ads that ran during the big game each year, including a video player so you can relive your favorites.

The Super Ad Bowl:Two Decades of Players

The Times credits Adland as one of the sources for the data. Looks like a great site to follow if you’re at all into TV advertising.

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